Gaza

Why am I writing about the current conflict between Israel and Gaza? Because my principles demand I do. Regardless of who you are you aren’t going to enjoy this post, however I assure you it is the truth as I see it. It certainly isn’t going to win me any friends, it isn’t going to help me sell my books, and it has already resulted in a number of unpleasant encounters on Twitter by people why strictly adhere to the mainstream American media’s view of this conflict.

If we hear about it in the mass-media it must be right. Right?

Wrong.

Read on and learn about a truth that is never told in the USA. Let me correct myself. Read on and learn about a truth that has never been told by the mainstream media in the USA. Thanks to the emergence of Social Media like Twitter, that is beginning to change,

Changing views of perpetual conflicts.

I was born and raised in Rhodesia. In the late 1970s, I served as an active-duty combatant in the war that embroiled that beautiful country. Back then, I held Israel in high esteem. Everything I knew told me Israel was the underdog, and I usually root for the underdog. I saw many parallels between Israel’s military and the Rhodesian military. From a military point of view history has shown the effectiveness of both. I felt sympathetic to Israel.

I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1980s. It had a significant and highly influential Jewish population. The view of Israel presented in the South African media was extremely positive. Indeed, the South African public’s perception of Israel was much like that consistently presented by the US Media, where I’ve lived since the mid-1990s. I remained sympathetic to Israel.

I only learnt how biased those perceptions were when the internet emerged. The internet has made internationally unbiased information widely available to anyone with the desire to learn more than a single side of truth. I stopped being sympathetic to Israel.

My reasons for my change of view appear below.

I’m not sharing my sources with you. Search the internet for the facts for yourself. The evidence is overwhelming. Everything I mention below is widely available on a staggering number of reliable, unbiased, and non-commercial websites. However, you have to do the research for yourself. Why? Because the deeper you dig, the more you’ll realize how badly you have been misled.

To start your research Google this search string, “number of Palestinians killed by Israel”. Now start reading, making notes, noting sources, checking validity, ascertaining impartiality, and falling into despair as you realize just how brutal one people’s treatment of another has been, and continues to be.

It is shocking to realize something you’ve accepted as unquestionable is a biased lie. It is shocking to realize the nation you long assumed is the underdog is a brutal bully. It is shocking to realize Israel is a nation far more deserving of the title “Rogue” than even North Korea.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to kill civilians using military might? Yes, both sides of the Palestinian / Israeli conflict are guilty of this. However, speaking strictly numerically, Israel is far, far more guilty than the Palestinians.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to use civilians as human shields for military operations? Impartial evidence gathered by highly reputable, unbiased organizations proves that Israel has done this multiple times, it also proves that the Palestinians have never done it.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to assassinate opposition leaders? Evidence proves that Israel has consistently used this “tactic” hundreds and hundreds of times, both inside and outside of active conflict. And the Palestinians? They have only used it once, but even once is one time too many.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to shell impartial observers? Israel has, multiple times.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to steal land simply by occupying it? Israel has, multiple times.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to demolish entire civilian neighborhoods as punishment for the acts of the insane unknown? Israel has, multiple times.

Under what circumstances is it permissible to kill ten for every one of your own slain? Biblical text in Matthew 3:38 states, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’” Apparently Israel has misinterpreted this to mean an entire jaw for a single tooth. By the way, if you decide to read that text please read the entire passage. It is quite enlightened in its encouragement of tolerance and forgiveness. Sadly tolerance and forgiveness are two admirable traits both sides of the Palestinian / Israeli conflict lack.

Under no circumstances should it ever be permissible to kill children. I am not going to tell you the numbers of children killed by either side. You must find that out for yourself or the truly appalling level of this ongoing brutality will just become a number, and murdered children deserve to be considered as more than a mere number. However I will say that the ratio of these murders exceeds ten to one, and the worst offender is not Palestine.

Yesterday I tweeted this:-

How is it that a nation which survived Nazi atrocity,
has become so accomplished at committing it?
#Gaza

How is it that a nation which survived Nazi atrocity, has become so accomplished at committing it?

I have great difficulty understanding how a nation whose people have been subjected to brutality can adopt practices that can only be described as excessively brutal. I have great difficulty understanding why a nation that actively practices racism by subjugating and denying basic human rights to an entire ethnic culture is tolerated in today’s world.

The USA’s mass-media coverage, and the US government’s ready adoption of rhetoric biased toward the Israeli side of this conflict does not serve the best interests of the American people. That is my opinion, which I am not only entitled to as an American Citizen, but which I believe I am justifying throughout this post.

I am disgusted how the facts and real scale of the Palestinian / Israeli conflict are actively disguised with immoral euphemisms. Fancy words are well suited to disguise abhorrent behaviors. The mass-media and the US Government uses them for just that purpose with alarming regularity. I’m talking about the little sound-bites that continually crop up, and are invariably pro-Israel. Disingenuous, immoral sound-bites such as:-

Proportionate Response. Proportionate means balanced. Ten Palestinians does balance the scale of a single Israeli.

Retaliation. There is no such thing as pre-emptive retaliation, yet measured over the duration of the state of Israel’s existence, Israel initiates the majority of conflicts. Brutally attacking a civilian population based on unsubstantiated data is not retaliation, it is punitive aggression.

Surgical strikes. Couch a murder in the cleverest words you like, it is still a murder.

Containment. Locking people away behind thirty foot high concrete barriers is not containment, it is imprisonment.

Over the last thirty years my view of Israel has gone through a 180 degree turn. I continue to believe that the Jewish inhabitants of Israel have a right to exist, but not if they extract that right with the deaths of other people.

I strongly believe the American people have been misled by their government and by the mass-media. I strongly believe we need to change our perception of this conflict based on the truths we research for ourselves, versus the ones we are spoon-fed by the biased. I strongly believe that when America befriends a state like Israel, it should understand why it has so many enemies. I strongly believe we must start doing what we know in our hearts is right.

The time for political expediency is over. Conflict is never right.

This is the age of Social Media. The age of people blindly believing whatever political rhetoric their governments and the mass-media spew at them is rapidly drawing to an end. Use your new-found ability, the internet, to find and verify independent, non-partisan, unbiased truth. Then use your Social Media voice to raise awareness of whatever situation fills you with passion. If enough people speak, change will come.

Please remember what some wise person once said… “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.“[*1]

Staying silent, is doing nothing. Even though it costs me, I refuse to stay silent.

One Response to Gaza

Charles, Thanks for your insightful post. I agree that the conflict has gotten way out of hand, and neither the Israelis, or the Palestinians are blameless. I don’t watch the news, or accept the media reports. The only thing I can say is that you are right, conflict is never right. However, sometimes we must hit bottom before we see that. I hope we’re getting there with Israel and Palestine. They’ve been at odds for so many centuries, the original reason has been lost, and neither side is willing to be the first to forgive. Their conflict affects us all. I for one hope they come to see that forgiveness is the only way out of the situation.